<p>MEXICO CITY — Grupo Televisa, Mexico’s largest television network, announced Tuesday it is merging with U.S. Spanish-language broadcaster Univision to form what they called the “definitive global leader in Spanish-language media.” </p>
<p>The new company will be known as TelevisaUnivision. Both firms have been struggling to capture a share of the booming over-the-top (OTT) video services sector.</p>
<p>Televisa said Tuesday it will contribute its estimated 86,000 hours of annual content production; the combined conglomerate will feature Televisa’s four free-to-air channels, 27 pay-TV networks channels and subscription video service. </p>
<p>Univision will contribute its namesake U.S. network and U.S. assets like UniMás, nine Spanish-language cable networks, and 61 television stations and 58 radio stations. Univision recently launched a streaming service, PrendeTV.</p>
<p>“The combined entity will have the content, production capacity, intellectual property, global reach and financial resources to aggressively pursue the relatively nascent global Spanish-language streaming opportunity,” Televisa said in a press statement. </p>
<p>Televisa depicted the nearly 600 million Spanish-language speakers speakers across the world as a relatively untapped market, noting “less than 10% of the Spanish speaking population currently use an OTT video product, compared with the English language market where nearly 70% of the population has at least one streaming service.”</p>
<p>Televisa will be the largest shareholder in Televisa-Univision, with a 45% equity stake, but Univision CEO Wade Davis will lead the combined company.</p>
<p>Televisa will retain ownership of its Izzi Telecom, Sky, and other businesses. The merger is expected to close in 2021, pending regulatory approval, and the combined company plans to launch a global streaming platform in early 2022.</p>
